Don’t Mess With Mister T was Stanley Turrentine’s final disc as a member of Creed Taylor’s CTI stable, a run that started in 1970 with the highly regarded Sugar. He continued recording for numerous other jazz labels in a career that lasted right up until his death from a stroke in 2000. Mister T is one of the remastered discs released by Sony’s Masterworks Jazz label in celebration of CTI’s 40th anniversary. The original 1973 album was a short one at just a bit over 30 minutes. It has been filled out with four bonus tracks, more than many of the Masterworks Jazz reissues.
As usual with CTI releases from this period, the sidemen are a stellar cast, including the usual suspects: Bob James on keys and Ron Carter on bass. Additional ensemble players include guitarist Eric Gale, organist Richard Tee and drummer Idris Muhammad. Others on board include the amazing Pepper Adams on bari sax, and a large string section, arranged and conducted by Bob James.
The album combines Turrentine’s favored soul jazz on the opening title track and the closer, “I Could Never Repay Your Love.” The former is a soulful and melodic Marvin Gaye song, nicely arranged. It features mostly piano, drums, bass and sax, with subtle contributions from organ, electric guitar, horns and strings. The closing track is somewhat sugary, with lots of horns and strings, although it also has some cool bass trombone from Alan Raph, and there’s some top-notch playing from Gale on guitar and Richard Tee on organ in the improv section.
The other two original tracks, “Two for T” and “Too Blue,” are both hard bop pieces written by Turrentine. The former is straight with no frills; aside from Turrentine, Ron Carter’s bass work really stands out. Harold Mabern beautifully sketches chords on the electdric piano and Gale’s guitar adds color and rhythm. Turrentine’s sax playing is emphatic on “Too Blue” Tee’s testifyin’ organ is prominent, Gale gets a long solo section that he fills with particularly spiky playing, and Carter does lots of jolting syncopated playing in the final couple of minutes.
The bonus tracks included several alternate players, including Billy Cobham on drums and Johnny “Hammond” Smith on organ. The production is notably different, with a harder, brighter sound and much less warmth. The alternate take of “Don’t Mess With Mister T” is almost three minutes shorter, much more electric and pop-sounding. “Pieces of Dreams” is soul jazz, heavy on the strings, with some nice melodic sax from Turrentine. “Mississippi City Strut” is a Cobham soul jazz number with no orchestra, just the jazz ensemble. Gale’s guitar sound is close to what George Benson was doing on CTI during the same period. Bob James’s jazz-rock fusion “Harlem Dawn” is the only one of the bonus tracks that approaches the level of the original album. Gale’s guitar gets a rock sound in the intro, Cobham approaches the kind of fusion drumming he displayed in the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s slower pieces, and Turrentine’s striving, romantic urgency brings to mind Bill Withers’ very popular vocals of the era.
I particularly like the balance of bop and soul on this record, especially on the original tracks. With the exception of the more syrupy orchestrations, it has aged quite well.
(Masterworks Jazz, 2010)
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